Residents’ opinions on police performance in their neighbourhoods

This article is based upon the Integral Safety Monitor (IVM) of 2008 and 2009, a survey conducted by Statistics Netherlands, the Ministry of Home Affairs and Kingdom Relations (BZK) and the Ministry of Justice. This survey is conducted since 2008 in the last three months of each year among the population aged 15 years and older. Persons living in homes and institutions (the so-called institutional population) are excluded from the survey. As the IVM is a sample survey, the percentages presented in this article are subject to a margin of error.

The calculations in this article are based upon the following questions in the IVM:

Can you indicate to what extent you (dis)agree with the following statements about police performance in your neighbourhood? Of course, you can also indicate that you do not know or have no opinion.

The police provide protection to the citizens in this neighbourhood
The police communicate with neighbourhood residents
The police respond to problems in the neighbourhood
The police are doing the best they can in this neighbourhood
The police have an efficient approach
The police are not very active with respect to issuing fines
The police take everyone seriously

(possible answers: entirely agree, agree, neutral, do not agree, entirely disagree, do not know/ no opinion)

The answers ‘entirely agree’ and ‘agree’ are valuated as ‘(entirely) agree’.
The negative question about issuing fines in this article is formulated and analysed reversely.